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This Isn't Your Big Sister's Institute

3,000 corps members. A staff of 570. It didn't happen overnight, but Teach For America's summer institute is growing up fast

By Jackie McCarthy

Ah, institute. Staring down a blank slab of poster board at 1 a.m. Your legs sticking to the vinyl seat of the cheese bus every morning. That soaring high of your first breakthrough with your toughest student. Therapy sessions with your corps member advisor. Crashing on the nearest bouch—the notorious bed/couch of Houston’s Moody Tower dorms—and doing it all again tomorrow.
Some things about Teach For America institute never change. But plenty has. And the pace has been fast and furious.

In 1990, Teach For America launched with just 500 corps members, who trained together at a single institute in Los Angeles before dispersing to one of six placement sites. Seventeen years later, nearly 3,000 new corps members received training this summer at one of five institutes in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia before heading off to teach in 26 regions across the country. A Phoenix institute is set to open in 2008.

Whereas corps members from recent years talk data and rubrics, “the first institute was probably tilted more toward passion than precision,” says charter corps member Leo Flanagan (N.Y.C. ’90), now an elementary school principal outside of Boston.

He recalls an “extremely politically charged” air that reflected the tumultuous beginnings of a nascent Teach For America. “It was energetic and chaotic. But that was part of what was exciting—it was on the fly. There was a newness and discovery to it.”

Few would dispute that early institute had an abundance of passion, but some found the spirited clashes a distraction from the daily challenges of the classroom. As the years have passed and institute has matured, well-developed curricula and structures have evolved to harness the institute’s electric energy.

What institute has ceded in grassroots spontaneity, it now makes up for in serious academic rigor. Gone are the days of the guidebook, a three-ring binder housing a hodgepodge of photocopied textbook excerpts and journal articles. Now corps members receive pre-institute work assignments and seven bound volumes of text developed by Teach For America’s curriculum design teams. Each text is dedicated to a different aspect of professional development, from classroom management to the overarching framework called Teaching As Leadership, which focuses on strategies of successful teachers in low-income communities.

“I see now as a school leader that the curriculum is of such great quality,” says Eric Thomas (Baltimore ’99), principal of Rauner College Prep in Chicago and former institute school director. “We’re definitely stealing and using it, even though our teachers are several years into their careers.”

Beyond the extensive materials, corps members benefit from more personalized coaching, with a 12-to-1 ratio of corps members to advisors (down from 16-to-1). “When you have a bad day, you will not go through it without at least one person from the school team approaching you and helping you,” says Jessica Heiser (St. Louis ’07), who trained at the L.A. institute this summer. “As busy as they were, they never hesitated to drop everything to help one of us.”

Videotaping new teachers is now standard practice at every institute, allowing corps members to see themselves in the classroom and reflect on their craft. They also attend interactive sessions with experienced curriculum specialists, participate in evening learning teams, and collaborate with their peers during reflection and rehearsal sessions and lesson-planning clinics.

In the future, training will become even more tailored, says Jeff Wetzler, senior vice president of teacher preparation. “Right now we focus much more on general teaching strategies that should be applied at all levels, but we’d like to get more specific to the grade and content level at which our corps members are teaching.”

Ana Gutierrez (Houston ’00), a member of Teach For America’s Teacher Preparation team and former managing director of the Houston institute, says the expectations for corps members have become much more explicit. “When I was a corps member, we got a grainy copy of the objectives that the kids needed to cover at some point,” she recalls. “Now corps members receive a list of [required] objectives, the estimated amount of time each objective will take, a lesson-plan bank, and diagnostic questions. All of those things scaffold their entry into education.”

With the advances in curriculum has come a stronger focus on accountability for both corps members and students. Today, summer school students have individualized growth goals based on initial diagnostic results. Student achievement toolkits are designed around each school district’s specific needs, and the data is carefully tracked and analyzed throughout the summer.

“Student tracking shaped everything we did in the classroom every day,” Heiser says. When she and her collaborative saw their students’ formative assessment scores, they realized they weren’t pushing some students enough, so they added time for advanced individual lessons. “You get the data one day, and the next you see in black-and-white how your kids are doing and what you need to do.”

Likewise, corps members’ effectiveness is tracked on a rubric that outlines specific benchmarks for the progression of their development. “Every week, we collect and review data on corps members’ skills,” Wetzler says. “Then [school] teams have the flexibility to differentiate what they offer the next week based on the needs of their corps members. So they can choose to offer differentiated curriculum sessions, to remix and match CMA groups, or to create additional learning experiences.”

INSTITUTE QUICK FACTS

2007 institute Corps members: 3,000 Staff members: 570 Rented computers/laptops: 599 Total minutes spent on training conference calls: 241,370

Number of corps members at institute: 1990: 500   2001: 951   2007: 3,000

Number of corps member advisors and curriculum specialists:   CMA CS   2001: 50 10   2007: 240 50

Institute locations: 1990: Los Angeles • 2007: Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia Coming in 2008: Phoenix

This personalized guidance helps corps members and institute staff navigate the dual goals of supporting summer school students’ learning and ensuring corps members are best prepared for their classes in the fall.

Kelly Powers (St. Louis ’07), one of Heiser’s institute classmates, found that the rubric kept her teaching on track and aided her development. “I struggled with timing, since we have so much to do with so little time,” she says. “I found that I tended to call on the same six to eight kids who I knew would have the right answer, just to keep the flow of the lesson moving. But the rubric constantly reminded me that I need to engage all of my kids.”

A Work in Progress
One area of ongoing progress is diversity training, a sensitive issue for many at past institutes. Over the years, surveys have shown that corps members rate diversity sessions lower than any other course.

“The dissatisfaction came from both white corps members and corps members of color,” says Pablo DePaz (L.A. ’00), codirector of Teacher Preparation’s Diversity, Research, Curriculum, and Training arm, which was established earlier this year. “Many corps members of color felt that their experience was being used to educate white corps members, and many white corps members said the sessions were mostly about making them feel guilty about privileges that they might have. The sessions weren’t closely enough connected to teaching and student achievement.”

In 2003, Teach For America overhauled the curriculum with the intention of making those connections more concrete. “We asked ourselves, What are the core mind-sets, beliefs, skills, and knowledge that one has to have to maximize the achievement of students?” says Steven Farr, former vice president of institute training and support, who now heads the Knowledge Development and Public Engagement team. “There are many potential obstacles to having high expectations for students that take the form of biases that we bring to the classrooms, consciously or unconsciously. All of these barriers between a teacher—whatever his or her race—and the students can inhibit the power of high expectations.”

The revised diversity curriculum and much of the progress that has been made since 2003 have focused on helping corps members reflect on how they could break down those barriers, Farr says.

Yet substantial challenges remain. These include figuring out how to train hundreds of summer staff members to be more effective facilitators and implementing diversity support for corps members beyond institute. Although DePaz’s team was able to make small improvements in staff trainings this past summer, he’s quick to note that they still have a long way to go.

In high gear to make changes for 2008, the team is reviewing corps member surveys, interviewing staff members, studying academic research, and talking with outside organizations—from school districts to health care organizations—that have enacted successful models.

“We’re in a state of evaluating anything and everything to make the diversity course more effective,” DePaz says. “The field is wide open.”

Long-Term Impact
The rapid improvements at institute in the past few years appear to be enhancing corps members’ long-term impact.

“One of the biggest differences this year in our corps members is that they’re able to identify a clear connection between their work over the summer and their students’ learning,” says Emma Doggett, executive director of Teach For America in the Rio Grande Valley. “They’re much better set up for yearlong teaching now—much more focused on student achievement, not just their own improvement. The sophistication of how corps members are thinking about teaching is at a higher level.”

Heiser, for her part, believes institute’s emphasis on constant self-reflection has prepared her for whatever comes her way. “They set us up really well, so that you don’t need a CMA or school director evaluating you every day,” she says. “We can do it ourselves. Plus, they’ve given us so many resources—I have a stack of paper like a foot high!”

Paying It Forward
Institute hasn’t grown up without the insights and TLC of its alumni. More than 83 percent of institute’s 570 staff positions are filled by alumni, in roles ranging from corps member advisors to school directors to curriculum specialists. Says Wetzler, “I hear from alumni that working at institute re-inspires them and gives them the chance to come back together and reconnect with the mission and the movement.”

Major investments in staff training and professional development, along with the addition of roles such as literacy specialists and directors of data management, not only improve staff effectiveness in supporting corps members but also give alumni the chance to build new skills and expertise.

Many employers, such as Lighthouse Academies, a national network of charter schools, keep an eye out for Teach For America alumni with institute experience, says Jody Roy (Metro D.C. ’98), Lighthouse’s director of professional development. “We especially look for CMAs,” says Roy. “We know they’ll be well skilled in planning and facilitation, and we know they are masterful in fostering strong working relationships with other adults in a short amount of time. They can also talk about their skills in a way that’s helpful to other teachers in being able to replicate successful instructional strategies.”

And, of course, many alumni return to remember the thrill of just starting out. Back at institute, Jessica Heiser is giddy with her latest assessment data—all of her summer school students surpassed their individual growth goals. “I’m so excited to sit down with the kids tomorrow,” she says, “and to be able to tell them exactly where they started and exactly where they are now. I can’t wait to get another batch of kids.”

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